Like a lot of us here, I adore Minotaur Hotel and want more people to know about this fantastic VN. Something I’ve come to enjoy from watching other Let’s Plays of MH is seeing different people’s perspectives on choices and seeing them experience MH in ways I haven't. One of the ways I see most content creators cover Minotaur Hotel is through Let’s Plays but something I’ve noticed that most who do the pre-recorded content is to either have the music turned down really low or just have it muted completely (as recommended by the MH team as stated in the credits section). Besides a choice of preference on the content creator’s part, I assume most do this to avoid having their videos flagged for the music. From my experience, some of the music in MH won’t cause any copyright strikes on a channel but it does prevent monetization for the creator. For smaller channels that are starting out, this might be disheartening to see.

As mentioned, most either mute the music or have it really low to not trip the content ID system which is an ok work around. The only issue I have with this solution is that I feel like audiences are missing out on the overall presentation of the MH as well as some of the beautiful original music in the game. So I wanted to put together a guide for any content creator to use who want to create Minotaur Hotel content but want to avoid any content ID flags while also being able to use as much of the music the team included in the game.

Some disclaimers: as someone who only very recently got accepted into YouTube’s Partner Program and creates content knowing ahead that it will never be “suitable for advertisers”; I don’t have the full experience with YouTube’s system. My experience is largely based on the observations made on my channel before being in the partner program. If you have any more insight that will help with this guide, please feel free to comment!  This list won’t be a complete list as MH is not complete as of yet; I’ll keep this list as updated as I can as new updates release. I also cannot guarantee that the list of music that is safe will remain that way as the artists/labels can later include their music on content ID trackers.

With all that being said, I hope this is helpful to anyone wanting to share Minotaur Hotel on their channels and streams!

YouTube Content ID

I uploaded a recording of the music menu (this was a huge help, thank you for including this feature dev team!) and looked at what songs were and weren’t claimed. All of these matched the claims on my 90+ hours of my re-uploaded VoDs from Twitch with the exception of two discrepancies. Out of the 45 tracks used in Minotaur Hotel as of 0.6.2.2, 17 songs will get claimed; all of which is licensed music. All 17 copyright claims will not cause copyright strikes but will prevent the video from being monetized by the creator and have all ad revenue paid to the song’s copyright owner. All original songs (13 as of 0.6.2.2) used in Minotaur Hotel do not bring up copyright flags up.

Copyright Claimed Music

1. Eagle’s Song by Andrew Jilin – used as Kota’s secondary theme. File name EaglesSong.ogg
2. The Sorrow by Andrew Jilin – used as Kota’s main theme. File name TheSorrow.ogg
3. Gymnopédie No 1 [(Titled in claim as Bonus track Gymnopedie No 1 (Satie)] by Daniel Bautista – used as Robert’s theme. File name Gymnopedie.ogg
4. Lullaby (titled in claim as Lullaby-42852) by Daniel Bautista –used in various parts. File name Lullaby.ogg
5. Dyngyldaj by Dayazell – used as Khenbish’s theme. File name Dyngyldaj.ogg
6. Crossing The Astral Bridge by David Gilden – used in varies parts. File name CrossingTheAstralBridge.ogg
7. Island Journey by David Gilden – used in various parts. File name IslandJourney.ogg
8. Jato (The Lion) by David Gilden – This is one of my discrepancies, this song was not claimed in my upload test but has been claimed in my VoD’s. It’s also claimed as the wrong song, Everything by John Hanlon which sounds nothing alike. As far as I can tell, it looks like the only songs by David Gilden  that are claimed are from the album Ancestral Voices which this song is not from and would likely not get claimed. I’m trying to see if trying to dispute the claim will get me anywhere since it is the wrong song.  Update: I was able to dispute the claims on my videos for this claim and there was no follow up claim correctly ID'ing this song. So you could use this song knowing a ahead of time that you may need to dispute an incorrect ID claim. This song is used in various parts of the game. File name JatoTheLion.ogg
9. Kora Duet by David Gilden – used in various parts. This song is detected by Twitch bots as well. KoraDuet.ogg
10. Savana Radio by Matt van de Heuvel (claim lists artist as The Color of a Dream) – used as Themba’s theme. File name SavannaRadio.ogg
11. Red Distortion by Noise HiFi – used in various parts. File name RedDistortion.ogg
12. 2 Virgule 4 by Oliostere – used as P’s theme. File name 2Virgule4.ogg
13. Sign by Paolo Pavan – this song is split into two parts and used in various parts of the game. This is my second discrepancy as my upload test only flagged part 2 but it seems to flag part one in my VoD’s. File names Sign-1.ogg and Sign-2.ogg
14. Talking About Petra by Paolo Pavan – used in various parts. File name TalkingAboutPetra.ogg
15. Calliopeia [titled in claim as Calliopeia - kithara (Ancient Greek)] by Tim Rayborn – used at the beginning of the game and various parts. File name Calliopeia.ogg
16. Foolish Child by Toni Castells – used in the deep labyrinth in chapter 16. File name FoolishChild.ogg

Safe Licensed Music

1. Aberdeen Done It by Brain Bunk Trio – Used as Luke’s main theme. File name AberdeenDoneIt.ogg
2. Solidarity by Brian Bunk Trio – Used as Luke’s secondary theme. File name Solidarity.ogg
3. Vindallo Blues by Brian Bunker Trio – used in various parts. File name VindalooBlues.ogg
4. Personal Elegy (instrumental) by Chris Field – used as Storm’s theme. File name PersonalElegy.ogg
5. Ave Maria by Daniel Bautista – used as a selectable song in Hinterlands 3. File name AveMaria.ogg
6. Greek Folk Song by David Gilden – used in various parts. GreekFolkSong.ogg
7. After the Big Sky Falls by Fernwood – used as Wolf’s secondary theme. File name AfterTheBigSkyFalls.ogg
8. Crossing The Divide by Fernwood – used as Wolf’s main theme. File name CrossingTheDivide.ogg
9. Obviously by Joe Smith and the Spicy Pickles – used as the cobalts’ theme. File name Obviously.ogg
10. Seikilos Epithaph with the Lyre of Apollo by Lina Palera – used as MH’s main theme and used in some scenes where Asterion plays his lyre. File name seikilos.mp3
11. Up There by Nurture Nurture - used as Storm’s secondary theme and as a selectable song in Hinterlands 3.  File name UpThere.ogg
12. May It Begin by Ray Montford – used in various parts. File name MayItBegin_Full.ogg
13. May It Begin (acoustic) by Ray Montford – used various parts. File name MayItBegin_Acoustic.ogg
14. One Witness by Ray Montford – used as Argos’ theme. File name OneWitness.ogg
15. When Darkness Takes Flight by Ray Montford – used as the Hinterlands theme. File name WhenDarknessTakesFlight.ogg

Original Music

1. Asterion by ZanderWolfie – used in various parts. File name asterion.ogg
2. Ariadne’s Thread by ZanderWolfie - used as the theme for the Hades flashbacks. File name ariadne.ogg
3. Seikilos Guitar I by H*ck – used in various parts. File name heck-seikilos1.ogg
4. Seikilos Guitar II by H*ck – used in various parts. File name heck-seikilos2.ogg
5. Seikilos Guitar III by H*ck – used in various parts. File name heck-seikilos3.ogg
6. Seikilos Guitar IV by H*ck – used in various parts. File name heck-seikilos4.ogg
7. Hymn To Nemesis by Civ Valian – used in the Ruthless Route and chapter 19. File name HymnToNemesis.ogg
8. Seikilos Jazz – Single by Civ Valian – used in various parts. File name SeikilosJazz-Single.ogg
9. Seikilos Jazz – Pair by Civ Valian – used in various parts. File name SeikilosJazz-Pair.ogg
10. Seikilos Jazz – Straight by Civ Valian – used in various parts. File name SeikilosJazz-Straight.ogg
11. Seikilos Jazz – Four of a Kind by Civ Valian – used in various parts. File name SeikilosJazz-FourOfAKind.ogg
12. Seikilos Jazz – Full House by Civ Valian – used in various parts. File name SeikilosJazz-FullHouse.ogg
13. Seikilos Trumpet by Jake – used as the credits song (most have likely not seen the credit roll since it’s only viewable at the end of the Ruthless Route). File name Seikilos_Vocal.ogg

Solutions

The main solution I can think of is to move or delete the songs that cause copyright claims out of the music folder of Minotaur Hotel so that the game can’t access them. This will make it to where the parts where those songs are used have no music but any of the copyright safe songs will still play as intended. Personally, I keep both the regular and SFW versions in their own files on my PC so anyone concerned with copyright strikes and just alter the SFW files and keep the NSFW version untouched for personal use.

Another solution I can think of is alter the copyright claimed songs so their much quieter than the rest of the music so it’s somewhat audible but not detectable by the content ID bot over the reading. That might take some trial and error to get it right.

The last solution I can think of is the most involved, replace the copyright songs that match the sound and feeling that those songs in the game evoke that you know doesn’t cause a claim.

Streaming on Twitch

From my experience of streaming the SFW version on Twitch, none of the music has been claimed on Twitch nor have I ever gotten any notification of a copyright claim or muting of my VoD’s.  

Twitch streamer Kenastion reports that his VoD was muted for the song Kora Duet.

In regard to the incorrect content ID claim for the song Jato (The Lion) by David Gilden. When you dispute a copyright claim, YouTube has you pick from a list of categories as to why you're disputing a claim and unfortunately incorrect content ID is not an option. I picked the "Copyright exception such as fair use", type of reuse as game play and in the comment, explain that the song being claimed is Jato (The Lion) by David Gilden and not Everything by John Hanlon as the content ID is claiming. I'm actually surprise that it got responded to as fast as it did and didn't just lapse with the 30 day they have to respond.

I don't know how receptive these companies are to usage of their licensed music in game play so I don't know if trying to dispute all the claims would be viable or worth most people's time. It's just easier to avoid for most, I believe.

An update: Twitch streamer Kenastion got a notification from Twitch stating that parts of his stream that use the song Kora Duet were muted. This wasn't a copyright strike, more like a preemptive action on Twitch's part to prevent the VoD from being susceptible to a DMCA takedown request should the copyright holder every try to issue one. It's an odd CYA thing on Twitch's part.